SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE
TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION CENTRE FOR WORLD PEACE AND HEALTH
MEET THE TEAM
CHOJE LAMA YESHE LOSAL RINPOCHE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Lama Yeshe Losal is the Director of the internationally acclaimed Holy Island Project and the Retreat and Meditation Master for a host of students from around the world. He is also a much loved and respected teacher whose wisdom, compassion, warmth and humour reveal him as a living example of the Buddha’s teaching.
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With his profound insight, acquired through many years of meditation in solitary retreat, and his personal experience of a broad spectrum of people from both the East and West, Lama Yeshe Losal is able to demystify and illuminate the Buddha’s teachings in a simple yet inspiring way. His humour and direct, down to earth approach crosses continents and cultures enabling him to give both personal advice and meditation instruction that goes straight to the heart. It is these unique qualities that make him a Lama of and for our time.
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Born in 1943 in Kham, East Tibet, Lama Yeshe spent his formative years in education at Dolma Lhakang Monastery where his brother, Akong Tulku Rinpoche, was Abbot. After a harrowing six month journey escaping from Tibet as a teenager in 1959, Lama Yeshe arrived in India along with Akong Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and a handful of other exhausted refugees. On leaving the Tibetan Refugee Camp he attended the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie and left in 1967 to serve as Private Secretary to His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim.
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In 1969 Lama Yeshe joined Akong Tulku Rinpoche and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Scotland where they had founded Kagyu Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Europe, Five years later, having tasted and become disillusioned with modern Western culture, he was reunited with H.H. Karmapa and accompanied him on a tour of the United States. Lama Yeshe and his friend Lama Tenzin Chonyi established and managed the Karma Triyana Dharmacakra Centre in Woodstock New York.
In 1980 he took full ordination as a Gelong monk from His Holiness Karmapa, on the auspicious date of the anniversary of Lord Buddha's Nirvana and Parinirvana, at a ceremony attended by the most eminent Tibetan Lamas of the time.
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In 1985, at the request of his brother Akong Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe returned to Scotland to continue his retreat at Samye Ling Purelands Retreat Centre and in 1989 became Retreat Master with responsibility for the western practitioners in the cloistered four year retreat. In 1991 Lama Yeshe toook responsibility for the running of Samye Ling and also to oversee the newly acquired The Holy Island Project.
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In August 2003, Akong Tulku Rinpoche honoured Lama Yeshe as 'Rinpoche' in recognition of his strong commitment to establishing a strong ordained Sangha in the West, and in recognition of his achievements as Abbot and his inspiring example to many thousands of friends and students around the world.
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Lama Yeshe Rinpoche's current focus at Samye Ling is to build the final phase of the Samye Project by completing the educational wing which will house the Samye College, Museum and Libraries. As Chairman of Rokpa Trust Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche has responsibility for Kagyu Samye Ling, The Holy Island Project and Kagyu Samye Dzong Centres worldwide. He is also involved in the Trust's charitable projects both at home and overseas. His energy and inspiration fuel the Trusts far reaching activities which benefit so many people in so many ways.
GELONG THUBTEN, DIRECTOR
Gelong Thubten is a fully ordained monk from Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, (www.samyeling.org). He took ordination over 23 years ago and has trained under some of the world's most accomplished teachers of meditation. He spent many years as personal assistant to Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, and has completed a traditional four year retreat as well as a number of shorter retreats. He also completed 216 pairs of the Nyungne fasting practice.
Thubten teaches meditation and Buddhist philosophy at Samye Dzong centres worldwide, as well as mindfulness at major UK and global companies. Clients have included the NHS, Google, McCain, Morrisons and The Institute of Chartered Accountants. Thubten's work has also been featured in the Times and Guardian newspapers as well as ITV and the BBC.
Thubten is also a Director of ROKPA (www.rokpa.org), an international humanitarian aid organisation with medical, education and cultural projects in some of the world's poorest regions, and a Director of Samye Foundation Wales (www.sfwales.org), a mindfulness and wellbeing charity.
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Watch Thubten’s ITV interview (2015) and read an article.
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Watch Thubten's talking about Meditation with Holly and Phillip on This Morning (20th June 2019) on the release of his book "A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation In The 21st Century".
Photo of Gelong Thubten courtesy of Tony Bartholomew
ANI TSELHA, CENTRE MANAGER
Ani Tselha is the resident nun and Centre Manager at Kagyu Samye Dzong Scarborough who has two boys and cares for her elderly parents.
She has a background in psychiatric social work and working with the homeless and young offenders.
She ordained as a novice nun at Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Scotland in 1993 with Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche and helped run the Glasgow Samye Dzong centre for a short time before moving to India, Dharamsala, for a number of years to teach English to Tibetan students. She continued on the Dharma path as a lay practitioner.
On returning to England she qualified in therapeutic counselling and her experience includes counselling in hospice, schools and as a counselling tutor. She took life ordination in 2008 with Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.
Ani Tselha is also developing the community outreach programme and teaches mindfulness.